Read on below for an excerpt from Tricia Sullivan‘s Lightborn.
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Almaz
KZ didn’t say hello. She was like that anyway. Sometimes she answered her phone in mid-sentence. Sometimes she expected you to read her mind. Sometimes she didn’t bother to tell you that some of the conversation was actually not directed at you, but at her pet iguana, Monty. Roksana figured this was all part of KZ’s manic appeal.
Today KZ was laughing too hard to say anything at all.
‘What’s so funny?’ Roksana said, when she could make herself heard.
KZ gasped and choked. ‘Sorry,’ she managed to gasp.
‘Do you want me to call you back when you’re done peeing yourself?’
KZ panted some more and then said, ‘I’m really sorry, my peri-menopausal mother just did something incredibly bizarre. It’s really not even slightly funny but I just . . .’
She was weeping with laughter.
‘OK . . .’ Roksana sighed. Today was obviously going to be one of those days. She glanced at her watch. 11:34 am 19 July 2004. Day from hell. Server down, A/C apparently broken, no plans, her father probably sleeping it off after another all-night work jag. All her friends away on vacation, except for KZ being a shiny fool.
‘’Snot just me. Josh’s anger management is also so—’ snort ‘—fade of mail. I mean, made of fail. I thought he was gonna run over the dog this morning. Hey, Rocky, did I tell you about the extra colours?’
‘No. I was just wondering if you wanted to go swimming later.’
‘But I can see so many of them! I think I could be turning into a bee or something. No, don’t laugh.’
Roksana wasn’t laughing, but KZ was. Then her cell cut off. Scowling at the phone, Roksana headed for the fridge. She passed the kitchen window and saw Irina out by the pool. This was odd. Irina was only responsible for the inside of the house; Roksana’s dad used a pool service. Irina stripped off her uniform, exposing a thin, pale body with Playboy breasts that balanced uneasily in a flesh-pink lace bra. Eyes wide, Roksana watched while Irina went into the pool house and came out with a net on a long pole. She put the net over her head, then twisted it several times using the torque of the pole.
Roksana’s heart was beating faster. There had always been something vaguely pornographic about Irina. But . . . shit!
Nobody else was home. According to the note Amir had left on the fridge, he had gone to his office on campus.
Irina can drive you and your friends to the mall later, the note had finished. I have a crazy day – Dad.
Crazy day? If Amir’s day was crazy, what did you call this? Roksana didn’t know what to do. She was afraid to intervene on her own, but the neighbours would all be at work, and anyway she didn’t really know any of them well enough to turn up on their doorstep begging for help with her family’s dangerously kinky maid.
She didn’t really know anyone well enough to do that.
Her father’s phone went to voicemail.
Irina was looking seriously unhealthy.
She tried her dad’s cell.
‘Tony’s Pizza.’
Shit. Tried again, checking the number in her phone book to make sure it was right.
‘Tony’s Pizza, can I help you?’
This couldn’t be happening. While she watched Irina strangling herself with the pool net, Roksana called up KZ’s number again.
‘Oh thank god you called back,’ KZ said. ‘I tried to call you but I kept getting routed to a 900 number for astrology.’
‘Can you call 911 for me?’ Roksana began.
‘Don’t bother, it doesn’t work. Listen, we better meet in person in case we lose this connection.’
‘KZ, I think our maid got some bad shine.’ Irina’s face was red. She walked around the pool, gazing down into the water as if she could see something under there.
‘Yeah, that’s nothing. We have some issues at my house. My mom and your mom are, like, coming from the same asteroid, you know what I’m saying?’
Being reminded of Mitch was the last thing Roksana needed right now. Shakily, she said, ‘Can you come over? I’m feeling freaked.’
‘No, you need to come here. Roksana . . . my skin is peeling off.’
‘What?’
‘Yeah, it’s turning purple and peeling off. Hee-hee! Look at it, this is so cool.’
‘KZ, please, for once . . .’
‘And I think—’ KZ started laughing in earnest. ‘There’s something wrong with my mom’s Clarity account. I borrowed some and—’ She muffled the phone, but Roksana could hear her gasping and screaming.
‘KZ, it’s not funny . . .’
‘Sorry, I know, I can’t help it . . . Can you come over? I need you because I have talking worms in my eyes. I trust you. You’re never shiny.’
‘No, I can’t – Irina—’
‘I’d pick you up but our car’s wrecked.’ More wild laughter. ‘Can you bring stain remover?’
‘What? Where are you now? What’s – oh, holy shit!’ Irina had jumped in the water with the pool net still wrapped around her head.
‘Roksana? Hee, Roksana—?’
Roksana dropped the phone and ran out on the deck. Irina’s face was purple.
Roksana crashed through the gate in the fence around the pool and plunged into the deep end. Irina was crawling around on the bottom, patting at the blue concrete like she was feeling around for a lost earring or something. Big bubbles were coming out of her mouth.
Roksana swam towards her underwater and waved her hands to attract Irina’s attention. Irina looked at Roksana and opened her mouth halfway. The net pressing on her skin carved her Barbie-doll face into soft chunks. Her eyes rolled back. She reached for Roksana.
Roksana kicked away, scared. Her clothes were dragging at her. She came up for air.
She’d never liked Irina. Irina never failed to let everybody know she had suffered. At the same time, she managed to convey her disdain at having to scrub the toilets of the spoiled American bourgeoisie. Her beauty was intimidating. Also, she never shut up about her perfect son the genius with looks, away at boarding school on a scholarship. Dmitri would not even look at a girl of Roksana’s mediocre calibre – Irina made that clear.
Still, Roksana didn’t dislike Irina enough to let her die in the family pool, just because of a nasty shine. She could see Irina hovering in the water, flailing her arms and legs feebly but not going anywhere. The stick of the pool net jerked, dragging on the bottom.
Roksana caught hold of Irina from behind like she’d been taught in water safety class. The pole of the pool net kept getting in the way, but Irina herself did not struggle as Roksana dragged her to the surface. Getting her out of the water was almost impossible. Luckily there was a flight of steps at the shallow end, and Roksana managed to pull Irina up them. She unwound the tangled net. It had left angry marks on Irina’s face. The process seemed to take a lifetime. Whatever strangulation Irina had attempted, it hadn’t been effective because Irina was full of pool water. Roksana thumped the water out of her and Irina started coughing and regurgitating.
Roksana sat back on her heels, gulping for breath in her own right. She had pulled a muscle in her back, and it throbbed. As soon as Irina could speak, she started yammering in Russian. She looked right through Roksana.
‘Irina! Speak English!’
Irina looked, but she did not seem to recognize Roksana. She didn’t even slow down, or try to make Roksana understand. She just ranted, and coughed, and then started crying. Eventually her stream of speech slowed. Now she was saying the same word, over and over again.
‘Almaz!’ Irina sobbed. She tried to get back into the water. ‘Almaz! Almaz!’